cynicallyoptimistic
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KLAS-TV 8 News NOW | February 10, 2011
LAS VEGAS -- For 10 years, medical marijuana has been available to patients in Nevada. But availability isn't so easy. Patients are stuck with few options -- go to the street or grow your own pot. There is no legal way to buy medicine that doctors support.
Now change is coming, and dispensaries could be right around the corner.
Rhonda Shade thinks there are problems right now in the program itself. Her old marijuana club, Medicated Janes, was part of the city-wide crackdown last year by the IRS, DEA and Las Vegas police. The confusing statutes, contradictory laws and fear of arrest led her to become a lobbyist. Her main target and ally is Democratic Assemblyman Paul Aizley.
"What she described was pretty silly with what's going on. You know, the stuff is legal but you can't buy it," he said.
A decade ago, voters approved use of medical marijuana if a doctor signs off on it. But there was no rule in place for how to actually get the pot into the hands of patients.
"You can't buy the seeds and you can't buy the plants. So if you have them, apparently you didn't get them legally," said Aizley.
So BDR 912 was written to give local cities and counties the option to craft rules for dispensaries, expanding existing law.
"It adds a section to provide collective and cooperative assistance between legal patients," said Shade.
Aizley and Shade are quick to add that the shops cannot be with 1,000 feet of a school, church or youth center. But they want it to be a monetary winner for the state and county.
"If we strike the 'for consideration' line, it would allow the exchange -- the monetary exchange or other exchange for medical marijuana," said Shade.
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